Last Friday was my last day of work. Today I started working entirely for myself. I've been working towards this for a while now, but here's how I got to this point and how you can too.

1. Cheap living. I've managed to reduce my rent and utilities to the lowest possible amount - zero. While we live in a high cost of living area, our only real expenses are groceries, petrol and insurance. If freedom from a job is your number 1 priority, you need to move to a place where it is not hard to make enough to cover your day to day expenses, it can mean the difference between surviving on 100s of sales a month or 10s.  You can move to a different location or the same location, smaller house.  I suggest you tackle the large expenses with a 1 time downside (ie. moving) but large ongoing upside (1/2 the rent month after month) first and foremost. I don't suggest clipping coupons or the like, which are ongoing downsides (searching and clipping coupons monthly) with small 1 time upsides (save 25 cents!).
2. Make time. I've been spending a lot of extra time working on the business leading up to this point. It meant giving up TV and sleeping in. If you can't squeeze a few more hours out of your day by eliminating low priority items (such as TV and lie ins), you will never succeed. It gave me time to learn the skills I need and set up a basic level of income before going completely on my own.
3. Having a backup plan. Having a backup plan reduces the fear of being out on your own. My backup plan is to go back into IT and contract. I can make enough to cover our yearly expenses (if the business has 0 income - worst case scenario) in 3-4 months of contracting. Then I have a window to give the business my full attention again. The company I just left has made it very clear that I am welcome back at any time and they are in a unique position where they are going to be growing even if the economy goes to pot.

So that's it. 3 things I did to move me to the point where I am completely comfortable being out on my own. They aren't difficult, but they may be emotionally hard, especially if you are attached to an area or are really addicted to TV. It's something that needs to be overcome on the path to your success, so I suggest you start working on each of them today.

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